[nrscroller]

HI
I have an BLI HO EMD SW7 phase 1 switcher with QSI sound. It sits on the track and goes either way about a few inches and quits.
I have cleaned wheels, take sides off trucks nd cleaned pickups also. Also reset it with wand on mainline and it will not just run.
Any suggestions as to what to do. Also what decoder would go in there to replace the whole things without sound.
Thanks
Bill

 

[mesenteria]

If your tracks are both clean and very close to level (none of the tires are being lifted clear of the rail), and you know the pickups are clean, as are their wiping surfaces, then you have either a faulty decoder or a bad connection between the wipers and the decoder. Maybe a bad solder, broken wire, loose component or connection at the decoder or with one of its components.

There are a couple of other possibilities, now that I think about it. It might be a severely cracked gear, or even a bad motor with a bad spot that won't allow the motor to turn evenly.

If you could invert the locomotive and support it in a cradle, remove the trucks, apply power to a couple of axles, one in each truck, and dial in some speed, does the drive mechanism spin reliably?

I assume you have tried a complete reset using the three CV method? Or with a magnetic wand? When you did, and entered the last CV value, did you remove power to the wheels for a couple of seconds and then power them up again? A reset isn't complete until you remove track power.

 

[nrscroller]

problems

Hi
Thanks to the response on my bli problems, after a couple resets and cleaning things it finally worked. I was also able to change a cv to direct throttle so I didn't get drift when slowing down in either direction. I don't know exactly what fixed it but now I have another good sw switcher for my switching layout. Thanks for the help.
Bill

 

[MichaelE]

There is usually a CV or a function button on the controller that controls shunting, switching it from regular throttle operation with realistic slow starts and stops to immediate starting and stopping for more precise control without coasting after the throttle is closed.

That is, if you have CV's 3 & 4 set to a high value.

One of my sound decoders is using F4 for shunting and another uses F6. I have not checked to see what CV's the manufacturer loaded to those function keys that controls the shunting mode.

I would dig a little deeper into the manual that came with your decoder so you better understand what is going on in there. You should know what fixed it so if it happens again you will know what to do.